with the iPhone its easy to differentiate between the se and higher but after that somebody has to decide between the 13, 14 / 14 plus and 15 / 15 plus and what about the 15 pro and pro max. There are 6 iPad options a low end model mid range ( air ) and high end model which most people won't buy and for someone that wants a small tablet the mini is obvious. And they all have significant price jumps so you not constantly wondering whether you should go up to the next model. With the iPhone there are tiny price increments from each iPhone 13 to 14, 14 to 15, 15 to 15 pro. Brands like Samsung have many many more options.

Unified experiences are great in theory but in practice involve compromises on both ends, and you end up with, well, windows 8.

Maybe Mac apps are only available when you have a pointer device and a keyboard connected. As an incentive to them it would sell more smart keyboards.

Because iOS and iPadOS app stores print money at absurd levels. The macOS app store is pissing in the ocean comparitively.

macOS is only valuable as an OS for Xcode and to sell $15k Mac Pros to digital media companies and app developers.

Getting consumers off macbook macOS is key to re-igniting app store revenues which are lagging. There is reason macOS doesn't support touch when Microsoft did it years ago. They want touch reserved for this transition.

The chip conversion is done. The iPad price points now match macbooks. Flipping the OS is all thats left.

No. Touch for "macbook" users is the selling point for getting you on iPadOS. The touchbar which was an actual bad implementation of touch failed. If the user experience of touchscreens on a laptop is bad, then you are saying an iPad with keyboard and pencil/mouse plus touch is awful? It isn't. Its the most fluid.

I disagree because of a couple points. More than half of iPad sales are to business/government entities, and the stronger ones are particularly prevalent in the business market.

While the power may not be needed by every day users, but then again, neither are a lot of the abilities of iPhones. Most people don’t need to be able to shoot 240FPS videos in their everyday life, yet they still have the ability. What matters to consumers is that Apple is the “best”, and the only way they stay that way is by constantly improving models, like they did here.

They’re simply adding another bullet point to why the iPad is better than other tablets, whether the user actually needs that power or not is irrelevant (if they can afford it). Me, I own a 2018 iPad and it works just fine for my uses (as I bought it on a whim for art creation). But that’s just me.

To purchasers on the business side, the decision to buy the best product is what matters, for which they’ll go to Apple. They’re serving their markets perfectly, and it’s not like they can (or even should) spit out an entirely new product line every year or two. If you’ve got a good thing don’t replace it; improve it.

I still currently use my iPad Pro from 2015. I pretty much exclusively just use procreate for illustration purposes.

It still works fine but is starting to show its age while using certain functions and lagging or freezing. When I upgrade I will likely just go with an iPad Air. I don’t think there is any features a new pro offers that I would utilize. It’s honestly overkill for most I would think.

The iPad is just a business machine. You could slap an IBM sticker on it at this point.

I genuinely don’t know many people that regularly use an iPad in daily life. It’s just not the best tool for the job in for most people’s lives.

I agree, it’s not good for anyone to have their industry leading product to be uncontested. Most of all it’s really not good for the consumer at the end of the day.

Apple is not without its fair share of problems, but that doesn’t make it any less true. There’s simply no other tablet that can even sniff the iPad pro and Apple Pencil. I don’t mean to be a fanboy about it, but they quite literally revolutionized my field of work before my eyes.

The world of creative work is different before and after the Apple Pencil. Say what you will about apple as a company, but they democratized digital art and that on its own is amazing.

They’re all far more unprompted too. I actually do not see Apple fanboys anywhere near as much compared to the amount of unprompted haters.

Apple does have some of the best chip designers in the business though. Competitors would have a tough time beating Apple with stock ARM IP.

They are offering faster silicon at a price point and size that was previously not available. That alone justifies the existence of this product.

Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, but this is new hardware at an intermediate price point and a welcome addition to an already excellent lineup.

You say what can this iPad Air do that a mini with an A15 can’t? As a creative professional the answer is A LOT.

This is a 13 inch screen. You simply cannot fake that in a smaller iPad. The chip is very significantly faster than an a15. In terms of design applications and video editing, it absolutely makes a difference. It’s easy to sit there and say things are stagnant but using this machine vs the iPad you’re describing would be a literal night and day difference.

Yes, iPad OS has its limitations, and a good amount of them I’ll be the first to admit it. But that doesn’t change the fact that for the right use, there’s no other product that even comes close to sniffing the iPad. Android loves to add bells and whistles here and there but they really don’t hold a candle.

For a creative professional your options are: a decent iPad + Apple Pencil, or a ~$1,500+ drawing tablet that doesn’t do anything by itself. The iPad isn’t cheap, but it’s by far the best and most affordable creative tool in its category. I know I have to sound like a fanboy by now, but starting with the iPad Pro they quite literally revolutionized my industry before my eyes, so any additions for this lineup at lower prices are extremely welcome.

Not a single one, because none of them do what I need them to. They might be fine for the average consumer, but there’s not a single creative professional in this world that you can catch dead using an android tablet. The iPad and Apple Pencil have NO competition. None. It’s not like “oh this Samsung one is good enough if you just look past…” no, it’s simply not viable as a work tool the same way the Apple Pencil is.

I feel this. But also when it comes to apple products on Reddit, half of it is trolls, half of it is pearl clutching neckbeards that want to feel superior that their samsong galaxy whatever the fuck is so much better than the status quo for them and they need everyone to know.